The Republican Party stands for nothing but clinging to power. Because they advocate for no policies that benefit ordinary people the only means available to them to stay in power are voter suppression and lying to their base voters. The lies become more extraordinary day by day.
During yesterday’s House Oversight Committee hearing on the January 6 insurrection, Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said that calling the attack on the Capitol an insurrection is a “bald-faced lie” and that “if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit….”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded: “Really? Well, I don’t know a normal day around here where people are threatening to hang the VP.”
But, that’s how Republicans roll these days. Also yesterday, House Republicans removed Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney from her position as conference chair after she refused to stop speaking out against the former President for instigating the January 6 attack on our Capitol and the counting of electoral votes for President Joe Biden. The Republicans ousted her by voice vote, which meant that no one had to go on the record for or against Cheney, and the Republicans kept the split in the party from being measurable. It also ensured that she would lose; she has survived a secret ballot vote before. Before the vote, Cheney allegedly told her Republican colleagues: “If you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, I’m not your person.”
Cheney has been getting a lot of favorable press for speaking out against the Big Lie and the January 6 insurrection. Who else has been doing that? Nearly every Democrat. Never forget that January 6 was an attack on the very foundations of our government and Republican leaders incited the insurrection. Now they are beginning to run from it — at least when they think the mainstream press is listening. To their base, statements like those of Rep. Clyde abound.
Closer to home, Rep. Paul Gosar is among the culprits. At yesterday’s Oversight Hearing, Gosar called the insurrectionists “peaceful patriots,” and condemned the fact that they are now under Department of Justice investigation. He also decried that some of them are in jail.
After ousting Cheney yesterday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told reporters: “I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election. I think that is all over with.” But McCarthy led the January 6 challenge to the Biden electoral votes and continues regularly to genuflect and make visits to the former President who, just last week, called the election of 2020 “fraudulent.”
Also yesterday, in the Senate Rules Committee markup of S1, the For the People Act protecting the vote, ending gerrymandering, and pushing big money out of our elections, Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said: “I don’t think anyone on our side has been arguing that [voter fraud] has been pervasive all over the country.” Of course, we’ve become inured to McConnell’s deceptions, but this one is astounding given that the Big Lie of pervasive voter fraud is the reason behind all the voter suppression bills Republican-controlled legislatures have pushed through or are pushing through in 2021.
Republicans would like to lull the mainstream media and people of goodwill into forgetting the reality of the Insurrection on January 6 while using the Big Lie that the election was stolen and praising the insurrectionists as patriots to stoke the enthusiasm of their base. We must fight against this gaslighting. Never forget that 140 law enforcement officers were injured, five people were killed, more than 400 people have been charged with crimes, and rioters did more than $30 million worth of damage at the Capitol on January 6. And, that the rioters marched directly from a rally attended by Republican leaders who incited them to riot. Legal accountability will come from the Justice Department. Accountability in the court of public opinion is up to us. Never Forget January 6.
Read more: Heather Cox Richardson, May 12, 2021
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